Website Effectiveness

Several small businesses have asked me to assess their current websites and determine their effectiveness. In web development, this is a very common request, and my response is always the same.

What do you want to accomplish with your website?

Many business owners can’t answer this directly and fall back to a generic “I want to attract new customers”. While a website is obviously a great marketing tool, it’s important for businesses to set specific goals to measure its success. Usually this begins with slightly vague goals, like the following:

1. Promote a special (new) offer or product or increase up-sell potential both on- and offline
2. Decrease in-person and cold-calling efforts by providing more content online
3. Draw attention to company updates and reduce support calls
4. Increase Facebook and/or Twitter followers for better mobile advertising

With the help of your website professional, you should be able to hone in on more precise goals:

1. Increase the number of upgrades to the Premium package by 20% over 5 months.
2. Capture 25% more leads online versus offline methods.
3. Convert 30% of legacy users to your new, updated system.
4. Cut telephone calls asking for company hours and availability to less than 5 per week.

Once you have a solid set of measurable goals, you can accurately assess the effectiveness of your website without overthinking.